


I Tried To Light Genichiro On Fire A Lot During His Boss Fight NGL

by PoisonHemloc



Category: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, and how to deal with a teenager with about zero coordination who is being stubborn, how to deal when your entire family grows really tall really fast, if you're reading this on an app an not ao3 they're making money off my work so. dont., logically this is canon divergent but you can't prove that, teenage!Genichiro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:27:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21810796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoisonHemloc/pseuds/PoisonHemloc
Summary: Isshin's adopted grandson has just hit a growth spurt, but the Ashina clan has a plan in place for this.
Relationships: Genichiro Ashina & Isshin Ashina
Comments: 8
Kudos: 24





	I Tried To Light Genichiro On Fire A Lot During His Boss Fight NGL

**Author's Note:**

> This was written because 1) I have had a few scenes floating around in my head for months and 2) StrayLiger pointed out "Grace and poise of a newborn baby giraffe" was too good a phrase to leave in the tags somewhere and I realized I wanted to throw it in a fic. It was originally referring to Kuro when he starts growing, but who wants to bully Kuro when Genichiro is right here?
> 
> Also while this can read as "canon compliant" I'm putting it in the same universe "No One Wants To Hear That Grandpa Was Kind Of A Slut" is and yeah that means (spoiler) it's working under the theory that they are blood related.

“Genichiro, this has already been decided.” Isshin bit back a sigh, looking down at his grandson. At thirteen, Genichiro had finally hit the growth spurt that Emma, Dogen’s daughter, had started two years before. But while Emma had reached a grand total of five foot one inch and then stopped growing, Genichiro had already grown a half inch every month since winter and, after a year and a half of her teasing, was once again taller than she was. At this rate he was growing like he had been born an Ashina, not just adopted, and Isshin was secretly glad he’d ordered his retainers to stop questioning his grandson’s parentage.

The issue was, well, everything that came along with the growth spurt. When Isshin had started growing, also around thirteen, he had been forced to wear his father’s old clothing until they thought he had stopped. It was a cost saving measure every Ashina got to go through, since they rarely stood under six feet tall and grew explosively throughout their teenage years; generally multiple sets of clothing were seriously damaged as well due to their general lack of coordination as they grew. 

He had been temperamental for weeks and annoyed for the next few years, wearing his father’s cast offs, until he got some new sets of clothing; he had then almost immediately grown a final inch and had to stitch strips of cloth onto everything to make up for it. But now that he was on the other side, he appreciated the thrift.

“I don’t want to wear your old clothing for the next six years, grandfather, you don’t have any shirts and none of it is even going to fit me for at least the next four years and having so much fabric hemmed up is goin-”

“You cannot change this decision, Genichiro. Your clothing is already three inches too short and you wouldn’t be showing off your wrists and ankles to everywhere you went if you hadn’t been so stubborn. At the rate you’re growing, you’ll grow out of clothing the moment the tailor finishes it or you’ll destroy another haori and the money to keep making more is better spent feeding you. Tomoe will- wait, Toshikasu!” The servant he named hurried over, breaking from whatever task he had been doing; Isshin had realized that he needed the tailor to make another adjustment to his old things. “I sent some of my clothing to be taken up for Genichiro. Tell the tailor to fireproof it, too, while he has it. Thank you.” Isshin turned back to his grandson, now open mouthed at the new indignity. 

“ _ I do not need my clothing  _ fireproofed _ , grandfather! _ ” Rather than respond, Isshin looked at the singed hem on Genichiro’s too short haori and the bandage covering a small burn, artifacts of an encounter with a candle when Genichiro wasn’t paying attention, then back at his grandson’s face when he followed the glance. Genichiro was growing  _ up _ fast and he wasn’t coping well with the sudden increases in limb lengths; while Isshin moved in a precise, calculated manner and Gencihiro’s mentor Tomoe moved in a fluid, dancing manner, Genichiro had all the grace and poise of a newborn baby giraffe and there had been casualties among the more delicate objects in the castle, as well as among his quickly dwindling sets of clothing with larger sleeves.

Isshin had already had the lamps in Genichiro’s room modified by Dogen, who had encased them mostly in thick glass with water underneath, so any knocked over lamp was put out rather than lighting something on fire. Two had already been broken, and Isshin hadn’t been told when others were merely toppled. 

“I’m glad we agree you’re wearing my older clothing once it’s fireproofed. You’ll have to make do with what you have until the tailor is done so don’t destroy anything else, please.” Isshin clapped his grandson on the shoulder and left him to splutter in rage as Isshin went with one of his generals to check on the southern border villages. 

Tomoe was not expecting Genichiro for another hour, and he obviously couldn’t convince Isshin that expecting him to wear his grandfather’s clothing- and having it  _ fireproofed _ to boot- was ridiculous by himself. He turned and headed for Gyoubu’s quarters, hoping the man was not on gate duty today.

He was in luck. Gyoubu was inside, drinking with Shume, one of his fellow Ashina Spears; a jar of Ashina sake and a candle was sitting between the two. Once he had been waved in he sat politely in front of the older man. Genichiro may have been one of the lords of the castle, but the former bandit had helped raise him and he wasn’t going to be rude, especially since he was asking a favor.

“Genichiro, looking for something to do before Tomoe comes to find you?” Gyoubu had turned down training Genichiro and insisted on Tomoe, claiming the lord needed the best to learn from. Isshin had wanted to, and had started training his grandson, but threats from the south had started occurring more frequently and he was needed running the country; he could no longer spare the time it took to train a samurai.

“I was hoping for your help, Gyoubu. Grandfather-”

“Genichiro, if this is about you wearing his old clothing, none of us will be able to change his mind.”

Shume chose to speak up, off to one side. “Isshin had to wear his dad’s clothing for years, too, and trust me, you are welcoming this with open arms compared with how mad he was.” He grinned at Genichiro’s questioning look. “I grew up with him. Same village, at least. I think his dad gave him the ultimatum, his dad’s old clothing or keep wearing his, but they weren’t getting him anything new until he finished growing or got better coordination, whatever happened first. It took a few months but he finally switched after he ripped the seams out on his hakama while we were sparring and it was four inches too short already at that point. I think he was swearing the entire way across the village to his parent’s, trying to hold them up.”

Genichiro had turned towards the general as he started talking, delighted to hear the stories Isshin wasn’t willing to tell him. He heard plenty of stories of large scale war and of small scale battles, tales of last minute success and desperate maneuvers and miraculous fights no one had thought Isshin would walk out of alive, let alone the victor, but no stories that grounded the man as, well, a normal person that also had spent several months wearing clothing that was too small out of pride. Shume broke the moment.

“Unless you want to risk your pants falling off trying to spar with Tomoe in a few weeks I’d recommend not fighting him on this, Genichiro. You’re already growing as fast as he did, and he’s stubborn; getting new clothing that fits isn’t going to happen for you until you stop growing.” Genichiro bit his lip for a moment, then nodded. Gyoubu and Shume were polite enough not to mention his entire face lit up red. 

“Alright, I’ll stop arguing about that. But.” He turned back to Gyoubu. “Grandfather wants to fireproof everything before I get it. You  _ have _ to agree that’s not needed.” He swept his arms out for emphasis and didn’t so much as knock his sleeve into the sake jar, showing how much that was definitely not needed since he was not going to be knocking into things accidentally. Shume and Gyoubu exchanged a look. 

“He’s just being overly cautious but he won’t listen to me about it, Gyoubu, but he’d listen to you if you told him it is not needed.” Genichiro had kept his arms out to the side, ignoring that his eyes had started to water like there was smoke in the air. Gyoubu nodded, slowly, as Shume picked up the sake jar. 

“Done, Genichiro?” And when he got a nod from the lord he nodded to Shume, who dumped the half full jar over Genichiro’s arm. Genichiro snatched the limb back, about to yell, and then saw most of the sleeve had been burned off and was still smoking slightly.

“You caught your sleeve in the candle flame.” Only a strip of cloth covering the top of his arm and going down an inch further below was left, since he had dragged the bottom of the sleeve across the flame. It would have started burning Genichiro’s arm if it had been left another minute.

Genichiro stared at his ruined sleeve and the sake drenched haori, and thought about Isshin’s reaction to hear he had ruined another article of clothing immediately after being asked to be careful, and decided the best way to now approach this topic.

“Please don’t tell Grandfather and I promise I’ll stop complaining about all of it.”

“Get us a new jar of sake and you have a deal.” 

As Genichiro hurried off he heard Shume mutter “Isshin wishes his stuff was fireproofed before he got it, it might have saved him some clothing.”

Genichiro had hidden the ruined haori in one of the chests in his room until he could get rid of it, preferably when Isshin was out of the castle, and had found a full jar of Ashina sake that he brought back to Gyoubu’s room. Shume waved him to sit down before he could leave.

“Listen, Genichiro, there’s only a couple people in this castle that have known your grandfather as long as I have. Which means I have to pass along all the stupid stunts he pulled when he was about your age because I can’t handle being the only other person who knows about the time he tried to fight a monkey with a spear and knocked himself out.”

“Wait, did he really do that?” Genichiro, delighted, listened intently to Shume’s stories about how Isshin had spent a large chunk of his early life just as uncoordinated as Genichiro was now until Tomoe came to find him for sparring practice, and left with the promise of more stories whenever he was free.

* * *

Several days later Gyoubu and Shume stayed back from a meeting to talk with Isshin. Gyoubu hanging back was normal, since he helped raise Genichiro and they liked to talk about his progress learning how to fight from Tomoe. Shume was welcome to stay as well.

“Did Genichiro stop complaining about wearing your cast offs?”

“Yes, surprisingly. I was expecting him to be as upset about it as I was, but he hasn’t complained at all since I told him I was having it fireproofed, too. I keep worrying he’s going to knock over a candle and burn himself again.” Isshin raised an eyebrow. “Gyoubu, you talked him around to it, didn’t you.”

“Shume did.” Isshin turned to look at the general, who had put in a lot of thought about the best way to approach this conversation, answered before Isshin could ask how.

“Isshin, listen. As far as Genichiro is concerned,  _ you _ are Ashina. You represent both your clan and this entire country to him, and he’s thinking that one day  _ he’s _ going to be Ashina, just like you are. And he’s watching you,  _ Isshin Ashina _ , the  _ best _ , the  _ most skillful _ samurai in this entire land, and he’s thinking, how am I going to measure up to that, when I’m tripping over my own feet and I’m moving like I have an extra joint in each limb? So I told him,” Isshin was solely focused on Shume’s words at this point, smiling faintly, as the samurai leaned in slightly, “I told him about the time we were sparring and you split your hakama open as the Fukasawa sisters were walking by, and the time you tried to climb that tree near the valley and got stuck for an hour until I could get Gensai to help me get you down.” Isshin’s smile had turned into a glare and Gyoubu was trying not to laugh but Shume wasn’t about to let someone else talk.

“He needs someone to look up to, and he’s looking up to you, but if you’re up on a pedestal he’s just going to break himself trying to get there, Isshin. He’s still a child; he’s not going to be the best samurai in this country anytime soon, but seeing Grandfather Isshin who lit his haori sleeves on fire when he was fifteen and didn’t notice til it nearly reached his arms and swore loud enough to wake up half the village and knowing that that same man  _ is _ currently the best swordsman in the land? That means  _ he _ can be the best samurai in this land one day, even if he needs to stay away from any naked flames for a few years and we’re not letting him near anything old and breakable. Also I think he thought about what would happen if  _ his _ hakama split while he’s working with Tomoe and got embarrassed just from thinking about it so he’s not going to risk it.”

Isshin nodded, no longer glaring. He may not have liked the idea of his grandson hearing about the less noble things he had done, but if it helped Genichiro, he would be alright. With one exception.

“If you tell him about the bowstring incident I will gut you, understand?”

“Lucky you I haven’t had a chance yet, so I’ll keep quiet. I am going to tell him about the horse accident when he asks though.” Shume left, laughing, as Isshin groaned and Gyoubu frowned. 

“The bows-”

“No.”

“Alright.”

Isshin sighed. “Tomoe should have gotten Genichiro by now, so I’ll be at the training grounds. Maybe I’ll get a chance to spar with him before xe wears him out and see if I can get the worst stories told before Shume exaggerates them too much.” Gyoubu wandered over to a different window and watched Tomoe and Genichiro spar for a few minutes until Isshin joined them, and smiled and left as Isshin and Genichiro started to spar.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me tell you I ran out of spirit emblems trying to light Genichiro on fire. Dude is just fireproof. But he doesn't have the foresight to fireproof his own stuff.
> 
> Also this was originally just bullying Genichiro until I realized Isshin probably had the exact same stuff to deal with but without someone telling him everything it's a bad idea to do.
> 
> Yes Tomoe is still nonbinary I've made a decision and I'm sticking to it.


End file.
